1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an animal mattress which is particularly intended operatively to be disposed on a concrete or other hard floor within a barn or the like and on which, for example, cows may lie.
2. Background Information
After feeding cows traditionally lie down in the pasture while chewing the cud, and there has hitherto been the problem that during severe winter weather and other periods of inclement weather when the cows are kept in a barn or similar structure the cows are uncomfortable and are not contented when lying down on a concrete or similarly hard floor of the barn. Furthermore, cows nowadays are typically being kept permanently in a barn or similar structure irrespective of the weather conditions. With the view to alleviating this problem various solutions have hitherto been proposed to render the feel of the concrete or similarly hard floor of the barn more akin to that of the pasture. Thus, for example, it has previously been proposed to provide on the floor of the barn a bag of straw on which the cow lies down, but this arrangement has not been fully satisfactory since movement of the cow tends to push the straw within the bag from under the cow. In an alternative proposed solution a layer of comminuted rubber from used vehicle tires has been scattered on the floor of the barn with a loose blanket disposed over this layer of comminuted rubber and with the cow then lying on top of the blanket. While such a layer of comminuted rubber provides from the standpoint of the cow a degree of resiliency and feel which is very similar to that of the pasture this alternative solution again suffers from the disadvantage that movement of the cow results in the comminuted rubber being displaced from under the cow so that the advantages of the cow lying on the layer of comminuted rubber are no longer achieved.